


Purple Rain

by flawedamythyst



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Clubbing, M/M, Tony has the worst ideas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 11:47:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11274777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flawedamythyst/pseuds/flawedamythyst
Summary: “Holy shit, we should totally go clubbing,” said Tony with the bright light in his eyes that meant he wasn't going to be talked out of this one.The Avengers go clubbing, Clint dances in the rain and Bucky has an epiphany.





	Purple Rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lexigent](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lexigent/gifts).



“Holy shit, we should _totally_ go clubbing,” said Tony with the bright light in his eyes that meant he wasn't going to be talked out of this one.

Bucky had only been living at Avengers Tower for a few weeks before he'd worked out that when Tony looked like that, you just had to take a deep breath and let whatever hell he was about to unleash happen. It had taken another couple of weeks for him to learn the difference between that expression and the one that meant you shouldn't do anything Tony suggested under any circumstances, and you should probably also go and find a bunker to hide out in for a bit.

Living at Avengers Tower wasn't exactly a calming, peaceful atmosphere. Bucky wasn't sure he'd know how to live somewhere that was.

“We're not going clubbing,” said Natasha in the tone that worked on Tony about 50% of the time but which Bucky could already tell wasn't going to work this time. “We're too old.”

“You're as old as you act,” said Tony. “C'mon, it'll be great! Besides, the geriatric wonders need to experience that side of modern socialising and you _know_ Thor will lose his damn mind on the dancefloor.”

“Please don't call us that,” said Steve, which seemed like a waste of breath to Bucky.

“I've been clubbing before,” he said. “Already experienced that side of 'modern socialising', thanks.”

Every head in the room turned towards him with surprise. He shrugged. “Well, I killed a guy in a nightclub, anyway. I didn't do much dancing.”

“Then we definitely need to do this so that you can,” said Tony. “Barton, you're with me, right?”

Clint glanced up from the mug of coffee he was bonding with. “Take a bunch of guys who have varying amounts of PTSD to a place filled with crowds of people, loud music and strobe lights? Sure, sounds like great idea.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Please, you worry too much. It's gonna be _awesome_.”

Which was what he'd said about the day trip to Coney Island, and that had ended with a fight against 33 robot pterodactyls armed with sonic canons.

Not that it hadn't been fun, just not the kind of fun Tony had promised them when he'd talked them into it.

Clint shrugged. “You're the one who'll end up paying for the damages. And when you do, just remember that the rest of us would have been happy just staying in and getting wasted while playing video games.”

Bucky had to tear his gaze away from Clint and fix it on his own coffee for a minute to keep his expression from betraying his reaction to that, because the last few times they'd done that, he and Clint had ended up fucking.

Bucky had tried to blame that on Tony, but he hadn't had much luck.

The first time, they'd all been kinda buzzed when Clint had somehow ended up bemoaning his lack of a love life.

“I swear to God, I used to get laid so much more before I was an Avenger, how does that even work?”

“I could set you up with someone,” said Natasha, thoughtfully. “Jacob from-”

“Nope,” said Clint. “I know your kind of setting people up. I'm not looking for some deep and meaningful thing with hearts and flowers and staring into someone's eyes. I just want a fuck, you know?”

“Amen to that,” said Tony, raising his glass in a toast.

Bucky hadn't said anything then, as the conversation moved on, but he'd thought about it for the next couple of hours as they worked on the best way to combine shots and Monopoly. He didn't want a relationship either, because there was no way he felt ready for something like that, but at some point in the last month his libido had reawoken. The idea of getting laid without any strings, especially if it was with someone he trusted like Clint, felt like just the kind of step he was ready for. Plus, Clint was sexy as hell.

Bucky waited until everyone was heading off to bed before catching Clint's arm, keeping him behind.

“Just thought I'd say, if you wanted, I'd be up for a friendly fuck,” he said.

Clint blinked at him for a long moment, during which Bucky had a moment of panicked doubt, then Clint's face broke into one of his wide grins. “Oh, hell yeah,” he said. “Now there's a fantastic plan.”

And it had been. Sex with Clint was a lot of fun, not to mention unbelievably hot, and Bucky had had no regrets about doing it again the next time the Avengers had one of their impromptu evenings of hanging out, or the time after that.

At least, that was what he told himself as Clint rolled himself out of Bucky's bed, gave him a cheerful grin as he pulled on his pants, and then headed back to his bedroom. It took him a couple of hours of lying awake, trying to work out why he felt so dissatisfied, to work out that the no-strings thing hadn't worked out for him at all.

Screw it, maybe Tony's plan wasn't so bad. Maybe Bucky could find someone else to sleep with tonight and get over this stupid thing that meant he wanted to be able to kiss Clint after missions, sling an arm around his shoulders when they were watching TV, and wake up with him still in bed beside him.

****

The evening started out great. Well, except that Clint had somehow found the world's tightest t-shirt to wear, clinging over his chest and highlighting all his muscles, and that Bucky seemed to have accidentally wired his libido to react to the sight of Clint with a beer in his hand like one of Pavlov's dogs, but he could handle that.

The club Tony took them to was flashy as hell, and they got taken straight through to the VIP area and plied with the most expensive booze the manager could drag out while his eyes light up with dollar signs at the idea of being able to advertise his club as the place the Avengers went to party.

Thor went exactly as crazy on the dancefloor as Tony had predicted, with Clint right there next to him, dancing up a storm in the middle of a crowd of admirers that he barely even seemed to notice. Bucky leaned on the balcony railing and told himself that he was watching the whole crowd and not just Clint.

“You know, you could go dance as well,” said Natasha, settling next to him.

Bucky snorted. “That ain't dancing. Doesn't take any skill to jump up and down.”

“Clint knows how to swing as well,” said Natasha with a note in her voice that Bucky chose to ignore, because he liked to believe he'd kept his feelings completely secret from everyone.

Clint glanced up and saw them watching, and gave them an enthusiastic wave, coloured light flickering over his face. His happiness just beamed out of him and Bucky wondered what it would be like to be close enough to him to soak up some of it.

“This ain't exactly swing music,” Bucky said to Natasha, and turned away to pinpoint Sam and Steve by the bar, Tony holding court at a table in the VIP area with Rhodey and Pepper beside him, Wanda trying to show Vision how to dance at the edge of the dance floor, holding his hands and smiling at him.

“So, who do you reckon is gonna get us thrown out?” he asked Natasha.

She snorted. “Too hard to say, could be any of them.” She considered, her eyes darting around the rest of the team. “Although, if Thor's dancing gets any more enthusiastic, he'll go right through the floor. That would be a surefire way to get tossed out.”

Bucky shook his head. “My money's on Steve. Pretty much every time I've ever been thrown out of anywhere, it's been because of Steve.”

“Maybe we won't get thrown out at all,” said Natasha, optimistically.

Bucky snorted. “Right.”

****

When they got thrown out, the guys Steve had started the fight with were taken out the front door while the Avengers, who had somehow all ended up in the brawl, got escorted out the back door to an alley lit by the flickering lights from inside the club.

“Oh, hey, it's raining!” said Clint with more enthusiasm than was called for, tipping his head back to let water drop onto his bruised face. At some point, he'd ripped the sleeves off his shirt, presumably to combat the heat on the dancefloor, so Bucky was pretty much just resigned to staring at his biceps all the way home.

Purple light from the club flickered over Clint's face, lighting the raindrops up for a moment, and Bucky couldn't look away from his grin.

God damn it, this was not what he'd signed up for when he'd propositioned Clint. How the hell had he got his feelings in such a twist over a guy who was meant to just be a friend he'd fucked a few times to let off steam?

“I'll get Happy to bring the car round,” said Tony, pulling his cell out of his pocket. “You know, I really should have guessed we'd end up in an alley if I took Steve Rogers out on the town, all your stories seem to involve alleys.”

“I couldn't let those fellas talk to that woman like that,” protested Steve, following Tony towards the end of the alley, trailed by the others.

Bucky glanced at Clint, who now seemed to be having a one-man dance party to the muted echo of the club's music.

“We're heading out,” he said, pushing his hair back from his face as the rain started to soak into it.

“Yeah, yeah, I'll catch up,” said Clint. “I love this song.” He glanced over at Bucky and raised an eyebrow. “You want to dance with me?”

Bucky raised the most sceptical eyebrow he could manage in the face of that level of temptation. “In a rainy alleyway?”

Clint shrugged. “Well, I was kinda hoping I'd get you to dance in the actual club, but Steve got us thrown out quicker than I was expecting. I figured we had at least another hour.”

Bucky laughed. “Never underestimate Steve's ability to find a fight.”

“There it is,” said Clint, finally stopping dancing in order to take a step closer to Bucky. “I wondered where your laugh had been hiding. You've been kinda down the last couple of days.”

Bucky wasn't the kind of guy who usually had epiphanies, unless you counted the flash of memory that had thrown off his Hydra conditioning. Usually, realisations took him a few hours or days of sorting through everything cluttering up his head and coming up with an answer, so this bolt of insight took him completely by surprise.

Clint was smiling at Bucky and asking him to dance, and had apparently been paying close enough attention to him to realise something had been bothering him. Maybe Bucky had been looking at this all wrong, assuming that just because he wanted something, it meant he couldn't have it.

Maybe it was time to reach out for something new.

He took Clint's hand and gave it a squeeze. “Screw it, you know what? I will dance with you in a rainy alleyway.”

Clint's face lit up and he pulled Bucky in closer, hips already starting to sway to the beat. “Awesome.”


End file.
